Merry Christmas

We've had a wonderful Christmas season.  The Holidays have been very good to us and we couldn't have asked for anything else...other than a little snow, which we actually did get, it just didn't stick.  We kept ourselves busy this weekend with some last minute shopping and prepping for Christmas.  We even braved going to Tysons Mall, twice!  Once for a quick shopping trip and the other to see Rise of the Guardian.  Cute movie by the way.  Although, I was a bit worried that the villain would cause nightmares for Reagan, but we totally downplayed it and so far so good.  We wrapped gifts, baked a lot and spent time together as a family.      

At Tysons, Kai took the boys on the little train while I did some shopping.  

One last ditch effort letter to Santa...

Dear Santa, 

Will you please bring me Pokemon?  

Love, Reagan

Mind you, Pokemon wasn't referenced on his previous lists to Santa...sigh...but you know how Santa works his magic.  

The boys enjoyed getting in their new Christmas pj's from Grandma Nancy to Skype with family in Seattle.   

We left out cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his Reindeer.  

Sometime during the night he polished off his milk, ate some cookies and his Reindeer nibbled on the carrots.  

And by the looks of it, he left a few gifts for the boys.  

Some new books...I'm sensing a theme here. 

The boys were super excited to see what Santa brought them.  

Isn't Santa good...he remembered to bring Reagan a Pokemon

And a skateboard for Camp.  

I'm still wondering who this gift was REALLY intended for.  

The Giles family invited us over for Christmas dinner.  I tried my baking skills once again and made my mom's rolls.  This time they turned out soooooo much better!  Lisa made a beautiful roast and is always such an amazing hostess.  

Patiently waiting for everyone else to dish up. 

All of us minus Lisa.  This is when we need an automatic timer or a child skilled at taking photos so we can all be in a picture together.  Workin on that.    

See...Mama's rolls are yumm.

Little Bodie 

Reese & Reagan 

And the mayhem all over again as the kids all exchanged gifts.  

The kids, minus Ava.  Camp (2), Reese (3), Bodie (almost 2), Max (5) & Reagan(5) 

Always behaving in the most charming of ways...Thanks Lisa for capturing this!  

Thanks for hosting us for Christmas dinner Lisa & Tom.  As always, we had such a great time.  

Merry Christmas to our friends and family.  We are truly grateful to have you in our lives.  Thank you to everyone for making Christmas so special for our boys.  They are over the moon excited about the toys, books, and games you all sent them. 

Merry Christmas!     

Zoo Lights

We met up with the Giles family for some fun at Zoo Lights.  We haven't been since Reagan was a baby so it was fun to see all the new lights.  They've added a lot of things for the kids to do which included a huge inner tube slide, train & carousel.  Of course we had to take a ride on the train!  

Our train was the soul train...much like this one so it was pretty entertaining!  

Always a fun time with the Giles fam! 

Baking Day

Another thing I love about the Holidays is spending a day baking up a whole bunch of goodies.  Last year I bought a bunch of trays at Target after Christmas in preparation for this year.  We took treats to some of our neighbors, to Kai's work and to my work.  I just love it!

The boys are pretty good helpers too!  

All of this...

Became this!  

My friend Jodi came over and we spent about 5 hours gabbing & baking.  So much fun!  

Grandma Nancy's Visit

We absolutely love it when Grandma Nancy comes to town!  We break all sorts of rules and the boys get to spend a lot of quality time with her.  This time her visit was 10 days.  That's long enough, right?  Nope, not at all.  The time always seems to fly when she's here and we never feel like it's long enough.  The boys adore her.  They wake up asking for her and most mornings, sneak into her bed for some snuggles.  I know she must go home absolutely exhausted after her visits with the early morning wake up calls and the constant energy it takes to keep up with the boys.

We let the boys stay up a little later than normal and watched a Christmas movie.

We visited Santa. 

Getting a normal picture of these two is pretty darn impossible these days.  

Camp just couldn't wait his turn!  He was so excited to meet with the big guy.  

Camp wasn't nearly as scared as he looks.  

Reagan asked for a Wii u and Skylander. 

Camp asked for some trains.  

We did some shopping, which included Camp begging for a snowboard!  Seriously though...I'll be calling on Uncle Tyler when we're really ready for him to snowboard. I know skiing...I do not know about this. 

Reagan started a masterpiece at school and enlisted Grandma to help him finish it.  

I just loved listening to the chit chat going on as these two drew together.  Reagan had quite the story to go along with his masterpiece.  

Fun with Grandma! 

We decorated a Gingerbread House.  

Unfortunately, Camp was under the weather and surprisingly did not want anything to do with it.

We were able to meet up with Lizzie for dinner in town.  

Grandma & Regagan at Old Ebbit's downtown. 

Somehow when Lizzie is around, Reagan always coaxes her into carrying him!  

After dinner, we went to see the White House tree.  

We raced around to find the tree from Washington.  

On our last night with Grandma we went for sushi in Bethesda.  Camp loves his tomago!  

Thank you for coming to visit us Nancy.  We are always so sad to see you go at the end of your visit.  However short your visits seem, we appreciate all that you do for us and the boys.  We are so grateful that you were able to be here with the boys this week.  It was especially nice for Camp to get a little more TLC this week when he was sick.  Staying home with Grandma is something special that he will always remember.  We love you!   

Everyone was sad to see Grandma go.  Luckily we get to see her again very soon!  We look forward to her next visits in March & May for the boys birthdays!